Use of ANTARES and IceCube data to constrain a single power-law neutrino flux

We perform the first statistical combined analysis of the diffuse neutrino flux observed by ANTARES (nine-year) and IceCube (six-year) by assuming a single astrophysical power-law flux. The combined analysis reduces by a few percent the best-fit values for the flux normalization and the spectral index. Both data samples show an excess in the same energy range (40--200 TeV), suggesting the presence of a second component. We perform a goodness-of-fit test to scrutinize the null assumption of a single power-law, scanning different values for the spectral index. The addition of the ANTARES data reduces the $p$-value by a factor 2$\div$3. In particular, a single power-law component in the neutrino flux with the spectral index deduced by the six-year up-going muon neutrinos of IceCube is disfavored with a $p$-value smaller than $10^{-2}$.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Version published in AP

Preliminary testing using Mokken scaling of an Italian translation of the Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia (EdFED-I) scale

© 2015 Elsevier Inc. Purpose: To study the psychometric properties of an Italian version of the Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia (EdFED-I) Scale. Background: The EdFED Scale is the only validated instrument that measures difficulty with feeding in older people with dementia. The original English version of the EdFED had three factors measuring: behavioral aspects of feeding difficulty (obstinacy/passivity); indicators of feeding difficulty; and nursing interventions. Methods: Participants affected by dementia and living in nursing homes (n = 210) were selected. Data collectors were trained to observe the residents' eating problems and their food intake. The data were analyzed using Mokken scaling and Pearson's correlation. Results: The Italian version of the EdFED Scale formed a Mokken scale which correlated in the expected direction with measures of residents' weight, Body Mass Index, time taken to eat, Mini Mental State Examination score and Barthel Index according to the unmet needs model of Cohen-Mansfield. Conclusions: The EdFED-I shows reasonable psychometric properties and can be used for the assessment of feeding difficulty in Italian samples of older people with dementia. However, further work with larger samples is required to test the utility of the whole range of items and the necessity of their inclusion in the EdFED-I

Reviews pages The resilience city/the fragile city. Methods, tools and best practice 1 (2018)

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always remaining in the groove of rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. During the last two years a particular attention has been paid on the Smart Cities theme and on the different meanings that come with it. The last section of the journal is formed by the Review Pages. They have different aims: to inform on the problems, trends and evolutionary processes; to investigate on the paths by highlighting the advanced relationships among apparently distant disciplinary fields; to explore the interaction’s areas, experiences and potential applications; to underline interactions, disciplinary developments but also, if present, defeats and setbacks. Inside the journal the Review Pages have the task of stimulating as much as possible the circulation of ideas and the discovery of new points of view. For this reason the section is founded on a series of basic’s references, required for the identification of new and more advanced interactions. These references are the research, the planning acts, the actions and the applications, analysed and investigated both for their ability to give a systematic response to questions concerning the urban and territorial planning, and for their attention to aspects such as the environmental sustainability and the innovation in the practices. For this purpose the Review Pages are formed by five sections (Web Resources; Books; Laws; Urban Practices; News and Events), each of which examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage of interest for TeMA

Training Language Mediators and Interpreters through Embodied Cognition, Immersive Learning and Virtual Reality: Didactic, Organizational and Cost Benefits

The use of Virtual Reality (VR) for training purposes has expanded exponentially in the last decade. This paper specifically examines the use of VR in the training of language mediators and interpreters. By way of exemplification, the paper describes a training project at the University of Palermo, the “Coopera” project. The physically-cognitively immersive ‘learning by doing’ factor that characterizes a VR educational experience is particularly well-suited to skill- based activities. The paper explains how the immersive nature of VR and the notion of ‘embodied cognition’ is particularly suited to mediator/interpreter training by plausibly reproducing daily life situations and providing a ‘risk- free’ environment in which students can safely practice (and make mistakes) without causing harm to themselves and others, and also to contain the high costs of mediator/interpreter training. We hope the Coopera project will help foster further research into new technologies in immersive language-mediation pedagogy

Cyclic dipeptides produced by marine sponge-associated bacteria as quorum sensing signals.

Four bacterial strains belonging to the genera Vibrio, Pseudoalteromonas and Photobacterium were isolated from the marine sponges Dysidea avara and Geodia cynodium. A Bacillus strain was isolated from Ircinia variabilis. A screening of molecules involved in quorum sensing (QS) was carried out by TLC-overlay and a new "plate T-streak" test. To analyze quorum quenching (QQ), a plate T-streak was performed with Chromobacterium violaceum. Strains of Vibrio isolated from both marine sponges and a strain of Photobacterium isolated from G. cynodium, activated QS bioreporters. A strain of Pseudoalteromonas isolated from D. avara showed QQ activity. Finally, it is reported that cyclic dipeptides isolated from strains of Vibrio sp. and Bacillus sp. (isolated from D. avara and I. variabilis, respectively) were involved in the QS mechanism. The simultaneous presence of bacteria that showed contrasting responses in bioassays for QS signal molecule synthesis in marine sponges could add an interesting dimension to the signalling interactions which may be happening in sponges

Review Pages: Methods, Tools and Best practices to Increase the Capacity of Urban Systems to Adapt to Natural and Man-made Changes

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always remaining in the groove of rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. During the last two years a particular attention has been paid on the Smart Cities theme and on the different meanings that come with it. The last section of the journal is formed by the Review Pages. They have different aims: to inform on the problems, trends and evolutionary processes; to investigate on the paths by highlighting the advanced relationships among apparently distant disciplinary fields; to explore the interaction’s areas, experiences and potential applications; to underline interactions, disciplinary developments but also, if present, defeats and setbacks. Inside the journal the Review Pages have the task of stimulating as much as possible the circulation of ideas and the discovery of new points of view. For this reason the section is founded on a series of basic’s references, required for the identification of new and more advanced interactions. These references are the research, the planning acts, the actions and the applications, analysed and investigated both for their ability to give a systematic response to questions concerning the urban and territorial planning, and for their attention to aspects such as the environmental sustainability and the innovation in the practices. For this purpose the Review Pages are formed by five sections (Web Resources; Books; Laws; Urban Practices; News and Events), each of which examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage of interest for TeMA

Reviews Pages: Methods, tools and best practices to increase the capacity of urban system to adapt to natural and man-made changes 3 (2017)

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always remaining in the groove of rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. During the last two years a particular attention has been paid on the Smart Cities theme and on the different meanings that come with it. The last section of the journal is formed by the Review Pages. They have different aims: to inform on the problems, trends and evolutionary processes; to investigate on the paths by highlighting the advanced relationships among apparently distant disciplinary fields; to explore the interaction’s areas, experiences and potential applications; to underline interactions, disciplinary developments but also, if present, defeats and setbacks. Inside the journal the Review Pages have the task of stimulating as much as possible the circulation of ideas and the discovery of new points of view. For this reason the section is founded on a series of basic’s references, required for the identification of new and more advanced interactions. These references are the research, the planning acts, the actions and the applications, analysed and investigated both for their ability to give a systematic response to questions concerning the urban and territorial planning, and for their attention to aspects such as the environmental sustainability and the innovation in the practices. For this purpose the Review Pages are formed by five sections (Web Resources; Books; Laws; Urban Practices; News and Events), each of which examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage of interest for TeMA

Quantum Effects in Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Cosmologies

Electrodynamics for self-interacting scalar fields in spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker space-times is studied. The corresponding one-loop field equation for the expectation value of the complex scalar field in the conformal vacuum is derived. For exponentially expanding universes, the equations for the Bogoliubov coefficients describing the coupling of the scalar field to gravity are solved numerically. They yield a non-local correction to the Coleman-Weinberg effective potential which does not modify the pattern of minima found in static de Sitter space. Such a correction contains a dissipative term which, accounting for the decay of the classical configuration in scalar field quanta, may be relevant for the reheating stage. The physical meaning of the non-local term in the semiclassical field equation is investigated by evaluating this contribution for various background field configurations.Comment: 17 pages, plain TeX + 5 uuencoded figure